The mechanism of dieting

Weight control can be reduced to a very simple matter of arithmetic. Total the number of calories you eat per day and average them over a period of time. Take the number of calories you burn per day, which should be roughly the same for everybody of your sex, height, build, and level of activity. Subtracting the calories burned from the calories eaten gives excess calories. A pound of fat is equivalent to about 3500 calories. If you eat 3500 calories a month more than you burn, you will be gaining weight at the rate of one pound a month. If you burn 3500 calories more than you eat, you will be losing a pound.

Hunger is related to excess calories. When you are trying to lose weight, you will be often feeling hungry because your body is registering that you are burning more energy than you are consuming. The good news is that once you reach your target weight and switch to weight maintenance, you will not be feeling significantly hungrier than you have 50 pounds earlier.

It is true that our bodies tends to speed up the metabolism when we weigh more than we should, but people who have lost weight report that the differences are minimal. For the most part, once you make it – you can eat as much as you did before when you were able to maintain a constant weight, regardless of what that weight was.